France's Sources of N2O Emissions
Key Insights
Agricultural Emissions Dominate
Throughout the decades, France's N₂O emissions have been significantly influenced by agricultural activities. The modernization of agriculture in the 1960s, marked by increased use of synthetic fertilizers, led to a notable rise in emissions. This trend continued into the late 20th century, with agriculture consistently being the largest contributor to N₂O emissions. Despite a decline in recent decades, agriculture remains a dominant source, reflecting the sector's ongoing impact on France's overall emissions profile.
Industrial Shifts and Emission Fluctuations
The industrial sector in France experienced dramatic shifts, particularly during the mid-20th century. Post-World War II reconstruction efforts spurred industrial growth, leading to increased emissions. However, the late 20th century saw a decline in industrial emissions, partly due to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, which encouraged emission reduction strategies. The most significant decrease occurred in the late 1990s, aligning with France's commitment to international climate agreements.
Energy Sector's Evolving Role
The energy sector's contribution to N₂O emissions has evolved over time. The 1973 oil crisis prompted a shift towards nuclear energy, reducing reliance on fossil fuels. This transition helped stabilize energy-related emissions, although fluctuations occurred during periods of nuclear uncertainty, such as the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Despite these challenges, the energy sector's emissions have remained relatively stable in recent decades, reflecting France's efforts to diversify its energy sources and reduce its carbon footprint.
Background
The chart shows a national breakdown by source of the yearly nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from human activities and processes, expressed as weight in megatonnes (Mt). Human-induced emissions are the main driver of the increasing atmospheric nitrous oxide that is warming our planet. The sources of human nitrous oxide emissions are
- Agriculture
- Energy
- Industry
- Waste
- Other
Agriculture
Emissions related to agriculture are mainly from the use of synthetic fertilizers and manure management.
Synthetic fertilizer, used for agricultural processes, contains a lot of nitrogen. That nitrogen in the soil reacts and causes considerable N2O emissions. The use of excess fertilizer, meaning more fertilizer than the plants can use to grow, causes even higher relative emissions. Applying the right amount of fertilizer at the right time can reduce N2O emissions. There are many technical solutions to reduce emissions while keeping, or even increasing, agricultural yields.
When manure is left on the field or otherwise managed in dry processes, it emits considerable amounts of nitrous oxide. Manure can be managed by wet processes, which reduces nitrous oxide emissions but increases methane emissions. Some technical solutions focus on modifying the animal feed to reduce the nitrogen in the manure, thereby reducing nitrous oxide emissions.
Energy, Industry, Waste, and Other
All non-agricultural categories together have much lower emissions than agricultural emissions alone.
N2O emissions related to energy are almost all from the combustion of fossil fuels. For example, the combustion of fossil fuels in power plants, cars, and airplanes not only causes CO2 emissions but also emits nitrous oxide (N2O). Any advances to reducing fossil fuel dependency will thus also reduce nitrous oxide emissions.
Most industry-related emissions are from the chemical industry for producing fertilizer, nylon, and similar products. Technologies are available to reduce emissions in these processes.
Nitrous oxide emissions from waste come from, for example, wastewater treatment and landfills.
Wikipedia: Nitrous oxideIPCC: AR6, 5.16 Anthropogenic nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions
Units and Measures
N2O emissions are expressed in the total weight in megatonnes per year. 1 Megatonne is equal to 1 million tonnes.
Wikipedia: MegatonneWikipedia: Global warming potential
About the Data
The last available year in all the emission datasets is 2023. N2O emissions come from the PRIMAP-Hist dataset. It is a rich dataset that combines several published sources to create a historical emissions time series for various greenhouse gases.
The Key Insights paragraph was generated using a large language model (LLM) using a structured approach to improve the accuracy. This included separating the context generation from the interpretation and narrative.
Data Sources
PRIMAP-hist The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1750-2023)
Update cycle: Every few monthsDelay: Less than 1 yearCredits: Gütschow, Johannes; Busch, Daniel; Pflüger, Mika (2024): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1750-2023) v2.6. Zenodo.